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A good choice of cory to be friends with my 6 sterbas?

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I've decided to not get a GBR next since I spent all my life with cichlids anyway and since getting my corys I really fell in love with this type of catfish. They are so active and playful I think I'd like to get 6 more now granted I only have a 29g; with how they behave swimming over all the driftwood in the tank I think it gives them much more floorspace than someone without as much as I have. I included pics to show you what I mean I literally have as much driftwood as you would want in the tank; the 2 smaller pieces I found myself even :)

I did some reading and they said basicly any species would get along but some people said about how they tend to socialize better with ones they look like which makes sense but I'd like to bring some color to my mainly black sand/background planted tank.

I can order Agassizi, Julii (likely false julii), skunk, peppered, panda, sterba and banded. My other LFS also carries albino, paleatus, melini, and green corys all of these are healthy and cheaper than the ones I'd be ordering. The melini corys I saw were really nice looking tank raised ones around 2 inches them being bigger than my sterbas shouldn't matter much I'd imagine.

I'm leaning towards the melini because they were really the best colored ones I found even looking at pics on the net for their species and I can personally pick which ones I want out of the 50 or so they have.

The large piece usually takes 4 months to sink when it's completely dry so I still haven't planted the tank how I want it. The big piece is also hollow in one part which gives them hiding places but they never seem to use them.

They might get along with other similar Cory species, and you also have an adequate amount of sterbai cories to add a different species, but in the end sterbai s get along best with sterbais. Humans and Neanderthals certainly are closely related but I don't think it's a question whose company we prefer.

That makes sense; I just wanted to add a different species for some color. I stopped by my LFS and the melini corys are great looking and healthy the smallest ones are the size of my 2 big sterbas. They also have little 1.5'' bristle nose plecos. Both of which they had for 3 weeks and have at least 25 left of each so they are the healthy ones.

I almost impulse bought them right then and there but I thought I'd think about it a little longer and see what people think. Anyone on here keep melini corys? I actually found a forum thread about a hybrid between the 2 species. So techniquely comparing humans and neanderthals isn't quite right since they couldn't breed. Unless my history is mistaken lol.

I ended up buying 6 melini corys and kind of on impulse a baby bristlenose pleco. The corys get along fine with my sterbas they are all near full size for their species but in time my little corys will outgrown them; something I'm looking forward to seeing.

The melinis started eating within being in my tank a minute lol; really healthy specimens. The baby bristlenose is cool as well he puts all his fins up and displays at the corys when they get near it's quite funny to watch.

I like the look of your tank. Kept melini years ago and realy liked them.

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See my profile for my tanks and what fish I keep

I feed the corys hikari sinking wafers, tetra flake, api shrimp pellets, and frozen bloodworms/brine shrimp which they seem to like those most of all. The melini are lots of fun to keep too always moving like the sterbs; hopefully the pleco starts to take algae wafers or veggies. I think atm hes getting enough from leftovers/algae tho.

Tank wise you can't imagine how much I want my big driftwood to sink so I can plant it fully. Thx, I really like the heavy driftwood tanks too; they def. match well with the fish I have.

That driftwood's the bane of my existence until it finally sinks it blocks my view how it is anchored to a dumb rock and I can't tie plants to it until I get it in place. I have patience but man having to wait 4 months for it to sink and fully plant my tank blows; I guess i just need to chillax a bit.

I had a bit of a scare with my ammonia at 2ppm b4 my water change I def. have been overfeeding since I got my melinis; the other problem is I have to make sure to turn the filters off with some foods because my emp. 400 especially sucks the food right in. I'm slowly getting use to how much food they really need after 30mins if there's food left I started to suck it out with the good ole turkey baster.

The pleco is anything but shy surprisingly he's all over the tank eating algae during the day. He also gets mixed up with the corys at feeding time so I think he's taking at least the hikari sinking wafers; they have a decent amount of spirulina in them so I think he's good. They only fed him squash at the pet store and he ignores it when I put it in so I think he's eating. I have a good amount of green algae on the driftwood too.

I'm use to NOT seeing my plecos move much in the day but this guy is the most active pleco I ever had I could of got a bulldog pleco which I never kept but they weren't very healthy looking compared to the BN. I saw this guy actually eating at the LFS unlike the bulldogs who seemed half dead sadly.